I am intrigued by the external barrel taper as found on,eg. Lincoln-Jeffries, the BSA underlever rifles prior to WWII, and the Webley Mk III through to the 1960`s. How was this produced? Was it by forging, cold hammering, or even machining? It is not seen nowadays, presumably being just too expensive to produce. I was told by someone with knowledge of Webley production before last year`s "reorganisation" that to produce the Mk III (in 2005) would require a selling price of over £1000 to make a profit.Since this is a simple design apart from the tapered barrel, would the cost of such a barrel be the significant factor?
Any comments from the experts on this section of the BBS?